North Korean army getting funky

so here is the North Korean army getting funky.

Bill Cunningham is a liar

So I was taking a cab back from a Super Bowl party and the cabbie had the radio on. He was listening to this show by a guy named Bill Cunningham, who I'd never heard of before. He was a pretty conservative host, talking about Obama and Pelosi doing bad stuff, the usual. Then before commercial, he said to this effect: "there's 6 inches of snow on the ground in Washington, DC, how about that global warming, you liberals?!"

Well, Bill is wrong. There are zero inches of snow in Washington, DC, because I live there. Apparently Bill does his show from Cincinnati. There was maybe an inch of snow on Thursday or so, but today it was 65 degrees in DC and the snow is long gone. I've never heard Mr. Cunningham's show before, but it seems like he just makes up crap. Pretty lame.

Here's his Wikipedia. I tried to call his show to tell him he was wrong, but it was constantly busy.

Kula Shaker

so I just rediscovered Kula Shaker - remember them? They were a psychedelic British band from the 90s. with some hits over here like "Tattva," "Govinda," and "Hey Dude." The stuff still sounds pretty awesome. And randomly, the lead singer's mom is Hayley Mills from "The Parent Trap."

"Hey Dude"


"Tattva"

(Sounds Beatles-y huh?)

"Govinda"
Link (can't embed it)

"Hush"


"Mystical Machine Gun"

Marxist VP Candidate Ineligible to Serve

so this was kind of a random thing - I saw some posters in the Columbia Heights neighborhood in DC saying something about ending "evil gentrification," and the website listed was votepsl.org. The website is for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a Marxist political party that's on the presidential ballot in a few states.

I was browsing the site and thought, "huh, the vice presidential candidate, Eugene Puryear, looks really young." His bio says he's a student at Howard University. Maybe he started late or was a grad student, but I couldn't find anything else about his age - his Wikipedia page just said he was born in Charlottesville, VA (until I updated it).

Then I Googled him, found his Facebook page and added him, and it turns out he was born in 1986, and is thus 22 years old. That makes him ineligible to serve as vice president, since you have to be 35 (and fulfill the rest of the requirements to be president). Here's a picture of his Facebook page, since you can't see it unless you're his friend on there.

Of course, this is a moot point, since the PSL will not win the election, but hey, it's interesting.

Fat guy with gun

So for some reason I find this video hilarious.

Samuel L. Jackson cab driver

So today I had a pretty awesome cab driver.

I was going to work, and as soon as I got in, he yelled "FUCK! It's Friday! They gonna run us over!" or something to that effect about the buses and cars on the street. He had the exact same tone and voice as Samuel L., it was kind of uncanny. It was mostly joking and pretty hilarious, he kept doing it on 16th Street, honking and hollering, sometimes just random stuff: "SOMERSAULTS!", and him and me were laughing it up.

Other than the Samuel L yelling, he was a totally normal guy, talking about what he thought of the meter and stuff. Then when I got work, the fare was $10 so I gave him $12, and he gave me $1 back, saying that's for church, or remember me when you get a drink today. Pretty cool. I like interesting cabbies.

Canada Day

So yesterday was Canada Day. A bunch of my coworkers are Canadian, so we went to the Canadian Embassy for their celebration. It was pretty cool - free (good) hot dogs and burgers, free poutine, which is French fries, gravy, and cheese curds, and free Canadian beer.

Good beer too, they had the usual Molson and Labatt's, but I got Alexander Keith's IPA from Nova Scotia and something called Kokanee, a light lager.

I feel like people should start celebrating Canada Day like they do Cinco de Mayo. You could drink beer, eat poutine, play the Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene - it'd be a good time.

Something else I noticed at the embassy were the girls. Canadian girls all either looked like sorority girls, or (the majority) were cute and nice and sweet. I didn't see a single grumpy unattractive girl. Maybe I should move to Montreal or Vancouver.

Baseball Stadium Names

so I was looking through my old emails and saw that I wrote this in 2004 - it's my suggestions for names for the Nationals' ballpark. It still kind of fits, since the stadium is currently called "Nationals Park." Here's what I wrote back in the day:

Baseball is returning to the District and with it comes a new stadium. And just like your garage band back in middle school, the first thing that stadium will need is a name. Here are a few suggestions for the future owners to consider.

Worldcom Park: It was hip for a few years for dotcom companies to buy the naming rights of stadiums, like the Baltimore Ravens' Psinet Stadium. Psinet, whatever it was, went bust and the stadium was renamed. Worldcom Park honors the D. C. area's important role in the dotcom bubble while providing some funds for the team. (To be renamed MCI Park in three years or when they become solvent, whichever comes first).

Anthony Williams Field: the only major league park with a bowtie-shaped outfield.

Pete Rose Stadium: If Ronald Reagan can fire air traffic controllers and still get an airport named after him, why not a baseball stadium named for famous bettor Charlie Hustle?

Ballpark Franks Ballpark: Hot dog companies have deep pockets that plump when you cook 'em.

city living, DC style! Field: Furthering our beloved motto by showing everyone how much fun industrial areas are.

Walter Johnson Stadium: Named for a famous local high school.

The Ballpark Not in Anacostia: Reminding jittery suburbanites where the stadium actually is (west of the Potomac) while teasing the Texas Rangers, who were the Washington Senators from 1968 to 1971. (Possible alternate: The Ballpark Not In Arlington)

Jumbo Slice Field: If the Real Jumbo Slice, Original Jumbo Slice, and Real Original Jumbo Slice chains pool their money, they may be able to come up with enough to memorialize their contribution to DC cuisine.

"Bitch Set Me Up!" Memorial Stadium: No explanation necessary.

And whatever names our future sports moguls choose, a Peter Angelos Memorial Port-a-John should be included.

Shiloh

So I think it's strange that people are named Shiloh. I've known a few folks (mostly girls) named it, and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie named their kid Shiloh. I guess it has a nice ring to it and it means "peace" in the Bible, but Shiloh was also one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. I don't know anybody (aside from a Suicide Girl) named, say, Antietam or Chickamauga or Chancellorsville. What's next? Thermopylae Smith? Dien Bien Phu Jones? Fallujah Henderson?

so I just got a spam email with the funniest subject: "I know what females do on a farm. NEVER leave them there unattended!"

What, pick vegetables? Walk around? Milk cows?

so I think the new hip thing is to leave out vowels in words. For example, there's the hip electronic group MSTRKRFT, there's the online record label RCRDLBL, and so on. I always see "yr" for "your" in emails and press. It's evrywhr.

so this is pretty funny - an article about sending the New England Patriots Super Bowl Champions shirts to Nicaragua. They maybe didn't used to do this, my buddy picked up a Tennessee Titans Super Bowl Champs shirt, back when they lost to the Rams, at a dollar store in Maryland. It's an awesome shirt. People are like "nice shi... wait a minute."

so if I started a women's beer pong team, I'd call it Two Girls One Cup.

In unrelated news, my roommate and I were on Brooklyn Vegan the other day, that was pretty cool. We're the top picture in the post about Daft Punk on Halloween. Some of the other costumes are better, but we had musical accompaniment.

so the previous experiment is over. It didn't work out like I thought.

My fellow DCist writer Graham also writes for a music blog, The Rockist Society. They write about power pop and indie mostly - The Hold Steady, The Thermals, The Bigger Lovers, erc. The other day one of the writers saw Josh Groban at a random bar and got a picture with him. He posted the photo on the blog and said "Nice guy, bad music." Somehow, Groban fans (who call themslves "Grobanites") found this and tons of them commented on their blog about how mean they were, how they were jealous of Groban, how Groban is an angel, etc. It's a pretty hilarious comment thread.

The experiment here was to see if I get a ton more hits and angry 16 year old girls commenting by dissing Mr. Groban, but alas, it was not to happen. Worth a shot, and the comment thread is well worth reading.

so it's pretty funny to read the keywords people search for when they find my blog. Here are a few, with my explanations:

-flex plexico (I wrote about this guy awhile ago)
-dirt mcgirt chips (wrote about Lil Romeo chips)
-jammy space invaders blogspot (???)
-funny registered names for dogs (wrote about this twice)
-sc schwerzenbach jacket (mentioned this briefly)
-name of rap group that has a midget (the little superstar video, I guess)
-mr goodbar hershey personality (I wondered why there are no full size Krackel bars)
-word to your mom (no explanation needed)
-what happened to bud dry (good question)
-what song do harold and kumar end up jamming to in the suv? (i mentioned the movie, but not the song)
-trip to fucking, austria (this)

so this is a pretty hilarious website: passiveaggressivenotes.com. Just what it sounds like. Apparently the note to the right was from a girlfriend to her boyfriend. Man, I would break up with her immediately if I got that.

Also, Wikipedia rules. Did you know that there's a statue of Uma Thurman's grandmother at the southernmost part of Sweden? No? How about that there's a Mount Terror in both Antarctica and Washington state? Or that the island of Saba looks really awesome? Well consider that small section of your brain filled now.

so i found this website, Freerice, where you answer vocabulary questions and the UN World Food Program distributes rice to starving people. Sounds great right?

Wrong, it doesn't work half the time. I'll click on the right answer, and it'll say "Sorry, try again" and show what I clicked on. What the hell? "Grouchy" and I'll click "Irritable" and it says "Sorry, try again, grouchy=irritable." I can't find an email on the site, but they need to get this fixed! I tried it with both Firefox and IE, both have issues.

UPDATE: It works now. Donate rice!

so I'm not sure how I feel about this. Rivals.com has a video section about college football, and a lot of them are hosted by a hot chick. They're kind of interesting and informative, but at the same time, it's like "hey, look at my boobs." Does she know anything about sports? Maybe she's just a talking head. But then again, maybe she really does. Is it a crass marketing technique? Is she really a college football expert? Who knows. I watched some anyway.

so maybe I'm getting older, or maybe I just don't care, but it seems like I'm getting further removed from pop culture. I keep hearing about TV shows, music, movies, and people who are all over the news, but I have no idea who they are. Eventually I learn what they are, but I've still never seen them or heard them or what have you.

Going back a little while, I'd never heard that band Hinder. Apparently some show called "The Hills" is big on TV, no clue, never seen it or knew it was on. Rihanna (who I hear is a big star but whom I wouldn't be able to pick out of a police lineup) has some huge hit song called "Umbrella." "High School Musical" is really successful? I dunno. There's some show called "Ice Road Truckers"? Etc etc.

I'm not sure what it is. Is it just that I'm out of touch, or not the target audience for this stuff? Or maybe pop culture has accelerated so that things become "huge" overnight, then fade away just as fast - or along those lines, maybe all these things are being hyped as huge hits when really they aren't.

But in any case, I'm not really worried to be missing this stuff. My feeling is if I was meant to see it, I would.

so i wish there were more commercials like this